Wooden Synagogue in Laukuva
Laukuva, LT
The beit midrash, built in 1928, stands north of Taikos Street, facing the town center with its southern entrance façade. It is a rectangular log structure on a fieldstone masonry foundation, covered with horizontal planks. Oriented with its short walls to east and west, it is 15.13 m long, 13.77 wide and 10.07 m high above the foundation. The building is topped with a gable roof, covered with asbestos sheets; original shingles are partially preserved under them. The prayer hall occupied the eastern part of the building, while the women's section was situated on the first floor of the western part. It may be assumed that the prayer hall was lit by the three windows on south and north; currently, there are only two rectangular windows on each side. The original fenestration on the east is unknown; a doorway in the southern part of the eastern façade is of post-WWII origins. There are no remains of Torah ark or bimah. Two small rectangular windows on the northern façade, and one similar window on each western and southern façades once gave light to the women's section. After WWII, the beit midrash was converted into a palace of culture. The prayer hall was changed into an auditorium, with the stage at the western end, over part of the original vestibule. A wooden entrance portico under a gable roof was added to the southern façade, and a plastered brick cinema projection unit to the eastern one. The building has been abandoned since the 1990s.